Data Marketplace Selling Info About Who Uses Period Tracking Apps

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Joseph Cox
@josephfcox
New: data marketplace selling information about which specific devices downloaded period tracking apps. Concern is that period tracking apps could be used in a post-abortion rights America to identify suspects. Company removed after we contacted

vice.com
Data Marketplace Selling Info About Who Uses Period Tracking Apps
The data could be a potential first step to identifying the users of a specific app in a post-abortion rights America.
10:08 AM · May 17, 2022

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7d9zd/data-marketplace-selling-clue-period-tracking-data

A data marketplace called Narrative, which lets anyone sign up and purchase information related to the users of specific apps near-instantly, has been offering data from users who it says downloaded period tracking apps, including some of the most popular period tracking apps such as Clue. The data does not include information harvested from the Clue app itself, but rather is a list of devices that have the app installed that in turn could be used to identify users. Motherboard bought a sample of the data for $100 within minutes of finding it on the platform.

The ease of access to such data has taken on a new significance in the wake of a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court earlier this month. If Roe v. Wade is overturned as was signaled in the leaked draft, abortion will be illegal in many states across the country. Privacy experts immediately said that period tracking and other apps could become a target for law enforcement agencies or motivated vigilantes to exploit to identify potential people seeking abortions or those providing them. Earlier this month, Motherboard reported on multiple location data brokers who stopped providing data related to abortion clinics after scrutiny.

To be clear, data for sale on Narrative does not include specific information about women's menstrual cycles. It is information on what devices downloaded a specific app. If a third party wanted to identify who used a certain family planning or period tracking app, the data for sale on Narrative would be a potential first step towards doing that.

Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher who closely follows the data trading marketplace and who first flagged Narrative to Motherboard, described Narrative as “a choose your own non-compliant data adventure,” which “includes everything from Planned Parenthood app data, countless period trackers, and a variety of other sources that seemed to be available for anyone wanting to track people and their private medical decisions.”

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